It’s starting to look as though that’s exactly what they did. Three weeks ago on October 27 in the midst of a bitter labor dispute, intending to show the unions just who had the bigger stick, the airline locked out employees everywhere shutting down operations and stranding thousands of passengers all over the world. Unions and employees were left – as they say in Australia – flatfooted, and the famous Qantas kangaroo, was in disgrace.

Management vs Unions

The battle between the three involved unions – pilots, engineers and ground crews – and Qantas management is a classic one these days. Qantas wanted to outsource a good part of its operation to Asia, primarily Malaysia, in an effort to lower operations costs. The unions, of course, focusing on the loss of Australian jobs (and union power), found it unacceptable, and the fight was on.

The First Shot

Stranding passengers in order to punish Qantas employees was the shooting-themselves-in-the-foot part. The reload and shoot again part came three weeks later. Instead of making brief contrite apologies to the passengers who had been stranded, offering them an offset and moving on in the hope that they would eventually forget, what Qantas did next was straight out of Mad Men. read more

Shock and disbelief is everywhere about the story that has upstaged the Syrian civil war, the Republican debates, Iran’s emerging nuclear capability, the EU’s struggle to be solvent: the Penn State’s pedophilia scandal.

I have to admit to not being a football aficionado. While I can calculate the trajectory of the football to any part of the field, I’m usually more interested in the relationships among players and coaches than the location of the football. In general I don’t think about it much when I’m not watching. And yet, the Penn State pedophilia scandal has me thinking.

How Could This Have Happened?

I’m seeing a lot of puzzlement about how this could have happened, a lot of looking for the culprit, and a lot of people distancing themselves from the blame. People are scared that as the stain grows the small part they played or should have played, their inaction or their tacit support for the people involved will drag them into the legal pit, and worse, disgrace. Complete Article: How Groupthink Sacked Penn State